Last
updated: 28/11/07
The worst year yet?
Students
in England are facing a student loan crisis this year with some applicants
still waiting for loan money they should have received at the start
of term, the Guardian reported in November.
The ramifications of this seem to have proven severe, with some students
saying they will have to quit if the money isn’t received soon.
For students who support themselves at university, a big part, if not
all of their income comes from their student loan.
Loans for all students, not just those in their first year, are expected
to be in the region of £2.9bn this year.
Several university student finance advisors have branded this year ‘the
worst yet’ for delays and are resorting to handing out extra hardship
loans to struggling students.
However, hardship loans are not available to everyone and the implications
of this are becoming apparent, with some students considering quitting
university, as they have been unable to support themselves, let alone
pay their fees.
Tom, a student from the University of Portsmouth says, “I applied
for my loan in April, ages before the deadline, and I am still waiting.
I just don’t know what to do. There’s only so much money
I can borrow off my parents, I’ve got no money for food, let alone
text books.”
For others, the situation has become even more desperate, Warwick University
student Sally says; “I haven’t paid my rent for September
or October yet and my landlord is threatening to chuck me out. There’s
no-one I know that could lend me that kind of money - I’m just
praying that I get my loan soon otherwise I might have to back out of
my course and go home.”
One student finance advisor told the Guardian, “We’ve given
double the number of emergency loans this year compared to the same
time last year. The majority will have been delayed funding loans.”
“This year has definitely been worse than usual here,” said
another. “We have had a number of students who have had serious
delays on their support.”
Another said, “This year has been the worst in my memory. All
students whose fee support hasn’t been sorted out at the start
of term are referred to us. We saw around 1,000 students in the first
week of term, of whom almost 700 didn’t yet have their funding
in place.”
The Student Loans Company itself was quick to deny any problems, saying
that this year is ‘the best yet’ out of years of increasingly
improved performance.
A company spokesman said, “We have exceeded the targets set by
the government and, in round figures, this year represents the best
year yet in a succession of years of steady improvement.”
He added that we are seeing delays because of an increasing number of
applications being handed in late or with mistakes, “We would
say that in the majority of cases, it is our experience that payments
are late because applications are made late or students or sponsors
don’t supply all the necessary information.”
But this does not account for all of the students who applied on time
who have still not received their loan, and some people believe this
points towards a problem in the system.
One claim is that a problem lies within Local Education Authority’s
(LEA’s). Currently, loan applications are handled by each applicant’s
Local Education Authority, and are checked by the Student Loans Company.
As of 2009, a centralised student finance office based in Darlington
will take over the processing of student loan applications.
It is claimed that these LEA’s, often already understaffed, have
no wish to plough staff and resources into processing these loans, when
in two years time they will no longer be needed.
One council worker, who calls herself ‘Roxalana’, agrees
this is the reason for the hold-ups in student loans this year.
Posting a message on moneysavingexpert.com she sent this message to
students, “Just want everyone to know that people (like me) who
work for local authorities do care and also hate how long everything
takes. It takes six to eight weeks to process an application due to
the large queues. We have experienced large staff cuts this year, even
though the Student Loans Company is yet to take over the processing
of our applications. This has left us with the equivalent of just five
full-time members of staff to process around 4,500 applications - eek!
Unless the powers that be receive complaints, they will assume we are
coping.”
Roxalana also added that she is now processing student loan applications
she would normally deal with in July.
Whatever issues there may be with the system, some unfortunate students
are still waiting for funds and can do nothing but wait for the funds
to clear.
by
Keren Arnold and Chris Marks
+
Statement
from the Student Loans Company
